PAPERBACKS

ROAD TO HEAVEN: Encounters With Chinese Hermits by Bill Porter (Mercury House: $14; 220 pp., paperback original). Noting that "The Chinese have always looked to hermits as among their greatest social benefactors and have encouraged rather than discouraged their pursuit of the Tao," Bill Porter roamed the mountains of central China, searching for practitioners of the Buddhist/Taoist tradition of solitary contemplation. Porter mixes history, legend and literature with lively accounts of his experiences. Despite the widespread destruction of religious sites by the Red Guard, the ancient practice of religious asceticism continues under the officially atheist Chinese government.